You may have noticed a correspondence between each element of the soul and the Universals—Truth, Goodness and Beauty. There is also a relationship between each of them and the Four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence with Logos, Courage with Thumos, Temperance with Epithumos, and all three with Justice, as Justice is the virtue that creates harmony among all the faculties of the soul.
When describing these elements of our humanity, C.S. Lewis simply referred to them as the Head, Chest and Belly. For simplicity’s sake, I will use these descriptors of the three faculties from here on out. [6]
So, how does this model relate to psychomachia, or the spiritual battle within? Well, when we engage in serious self-reflection, we know that our thoughts, actions, and desires are far from perfect; we miss the mark. In short, our Heads, Chests and Bellies need some work. Plato and others believed that with a proper paideia (education and enculturation) each of these faculties could be cultivated in such a way that a person could experience internal harmony and live as a human being ought to live, virtuously.
As an Orthodox Christian, it is important to emphasize that in this life people are not always going to hit the mark. In fact, we will fall quite a bit; however, people are capable of great improvement, including noteworthy intellectual and moral heights—especially, and ultimately, with inspiration from The Holy Spirit. With that said, let me give you a (fictitious) scenario that shows how the three faculties of the soul might work.
Let’s say that I love brownies, especially moist and thick brownies. I go to a birthday party and after greeting everyone and wishing the host a happy birthday, I make a beeline over to the dessert table. My eyes see and my nose senses a tray of delicious brownies. I naturally partake of one. “Boy, that’s a gooooood brownie,” I think to myself. My belly wants another one. I look around to see if anyone is watching. My wife is nowhere in sight, so I take a second. The brownies are so good and I’m still hungry, so now I think about whether or not I should take a third brownie. I think to myself, “I really shouldn’t have another one. I ought to let the other guests enjoy them, plus I don’t need the calories and I know I’ll feel guilty afterwards.” So, what do I do? I enjoy another scrumptious brownie. After the party, when my stomach is full, I ask myself, “Why did I do that? What’s wrong with me?”
The reason I overindulged and ignored my intellect is because the desires of my belly (Epithumos) are strong, stronger than my head (Logos). In a one-to-one contest, the belly will regularly get the best of the head, and for this reason the head and chest (Thumos) must work together to overcome the excessive appetites of the belly. In this fictitious case, that did not happen. This is psychomachia in action. Ideally, the head would direct the belly, and even if it gets some resistance from the belly, a well-formed chest could come to the rescue.
This type of internal battle could be applied to all kinds of decisions we make, small and large, but the belly is not always the culprit. Sometimes it’s the head, it could be ignorance, pride or ingratitude, and other times it’s the chest, it may be cowardice, anger, or procrastination. Perhaps it is all three faculties that are failing. For this reason, a proper formation and education of the Head, Chest and Belly is necessary to a well-ordered soul. A good paideia or praxis properly informs the Logos with knowledge, logical thinking, and prudence with some humility (i.e. a moral compass); it informs the Thumos with good habits that build strength of character, including virtues such as courage and perseverance in pursuit of holiness; and it trains the Epithumos with affections or desires for good and beautiful things, with moderation.
It is interesting to note that the Gospels provide an example of temptations of The Lord Jesus Christ Himself that illustrates the three faculties of soul at work. Recall that in Matthew’s account, Our Lord fasted for forty days in the desert before beginning His public ministry. The devil tempted Him in three ways—with bread, with power and with worldly recognition (4:1-11). When reading the passage, notice that the temptations correspond to three faculties of the soul—the Belly, with food to satisfy hunger; the Chest, with power; and the Head, with pride and glory. In each case, the Lord showed temperance, fortitude and prudence as He rebuked the devil. Unlike in the example with the brownies, where the internal battle was lost, there was no contest between the will of Satan and The Lord Jesus Christ, Whose soul was perfectly synergized with the Divine will.[7]
Having described psychomachia and the faculties of the soul, how is this relevant to us in our daily lives? How does it aid us in our own spiritual progress? Considering the composite nature of our being, we know that it is not enough to only educate the mind. Knowledge, logical thinking and good thoughts are essential, to be sure, but they only take you so far. Our character needs strengthening and training, as in virtues like fortitude, and our appetites or desires need to be cultivated so that we are moderate and so we desire good, true and beautiful things rather than negative, corrupt and counterfeit ones. How do we do all of this?
While Plato’s pre-Christian teachings about the soul were instructive and helpful, insofar as human reasoning could produce good ends, they were incomplete and without grace. Fortunately, our Holy Church has a two-thousand-year-old prescription for goodness or holiness that properly forms the human soul, opening us up to God’s graces or energies, thus enabling us to live in communion with God in this life and in the next. The remedy is none other than the sacramental and ascetic way of life initiated by the Lord Jesus Christ, passed on by His apostles and generations of faithful Christians to the present time. It entails the reception of the Holy and Life-giving Mysteries of the Church (i.e. Baptism and Chrismation, Eucharist, Confession, etc.) coupled with a life of repentance and humility,[8] continual prayer and communal worship, guarding the heart,[9] contemplation of sacred scripture and other God-inspired texts, fasting and other self-denying practices, as well as almsgiving.[10] This medicine or therapy properly forms each faculty of the soul so that our thoughts, actions and desires are all in harmony and aim toward union with God. This synergy between God and man results in holiness in this life and theosis in the next.[11]
To read more about the Church’s teaching about the aspects of the soul and its healing, I recommend Metropolitan Hierotheos’ The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition, that deals with the passions and their cures. Shorter and more introductory books on this topic include Metropolitan Hierotheos’ Orthodox Spirituality and Dee Pennock’s God’s Path to Sanity.
Jason Caros is a husband, father and long-time educator who served as a classical school headmaster for twelve years. He is a cradle Orthodox Christian who has taught classes on Orthodox theology, worship, and spirituality to high school students and adults in his churches in Florida and Texas.
Endnotes:
[1]A well-known saying of the fourth century church father, St. Ephraim the Syrian, was “The beginning of salvation is to know oneself” (Complete Works, Assemani ed., 1.254).
[2] The Shepherd of Hermas, bk. 2.
[3] Third Century on Love, vv. 92-93. Note that the word “intellect,” sometimes also translated into English as “mind,” often refers to the Greek word nous that is frequently found in the writings of the Eastern Church Fathers. See note 3.
[4] Platonism, or Neoplatonism, and Eastern Christianity are incompatible. The Church Fathers’ beliefs about the soul, its purification, illumination and deification have a different character than the views held by the ancient philosophers. Instead, their theoria, or direct experience of God, was consistent with both Old Testament and New Testament examples.
[5] For those familiar with the term, “nous,” note that logos and nous are not synonymous in this model even though they are sometimes used interchangeably in other settings. Both Plato, in Timaeus, and the Eastern Church Fathers generally reserve this word for a higher aspect of the soul, or more specifically as the eye of the soul for the Eastern Christian theologians.
[6] In English translations of the Church Fathers such as Sts. Dorotheos of Gaza, Maximos the Confessor, John of Damascus and Gregory Palamas, the words intelligent, incensive and appetitive (or desiring) are often used for the three faculties or powers of the soul.
[7] Here, the emphasis is on the perfection of the three faculties of the soul—intelligent, spirited and desiring. This takes into account the Church’s teachings, affirmed by the Ecumenical Councils, about the Incarnation and natures of The Lord Jesus Christ, namely that God has assumed every aspect of our nature, body and soul, and that Christ has one hypostasis and two natures, divine and human, with two wills. The human will is submissive to the divine will.
[8] Returning to the theme of self-knowledge, repentance and humility are essential signs that someone is on the path to holiness. In the famous parable about the Publican and Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14), the prideful Pharisee is spiritually blind whereas the penitent and humble tax-collector was more self-aware.
[9] All sins begin with thoughts. Guarding the heart refers to attentiveness and watchfulness in preventing negative images and thoughts (logismoi) from turning into sin and corrupting the (spiritual) heart.
[10] Almsgiving is sometimes referred to as mercy. The ancient word for alms used by the church is the Greek word, eleēmosynē (Gk. ἐλεημοσύνη), meaning compassion, mercy or loving-kindness. Christians are expected to serve and support the poor and those in need, in general.
[11] Theosis refers to deification or union with God. Orthodox teaching about theosis, the third stage of the threefold salvific path that follows purification and illumination, is that for most people this occurs in the next life, but for some, the saints (in the Greek, ἅγιοv, meaning holy ones), it can be experienced in this life first. The levels of spiritual perfection, which result from the uncreated grace or energies of God, develop in those who cooperate and respond to divine grace.
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